Christmas 2016

Merry Christmas, everyone!!! After AR and I went to Six Flags on Friday, we headed over to my sister's house. She was hosting our family's Christmas on Saturday. My main objective was to keep H out of trouble and make sure AR and Sha got along. Way past all of our bedtimes, the three littlest girls headed to bed while Sha Sha continued to prepare for the big event and we all slept in until almost 9AM on Saturday morning!

We all three started out in one bed then I got up since I was squeezed in the middle. Halfway through the night, AR came and got into bed with me. In the morning she said she woke up and figured I was lonely and needed love so that's why she got in bed with me. In reality, I think H kicked her out of bed because AR was a kicking machine. AR then proceeded to tell me that she was going to go see if H would jump outside with her (on the trampoline) and I had to be the bad mom and tell her that was a bad idea. So instead, we took showers and got ready for my dad and his family to arrive.

Once the girls knew Papa was close, they were anxious for them to get there. AR couldn't find her own boots so she hijacked mine!

Then the present unwrapping began and even AR was shocked at the stack in front of her. She got lots and lots of Descendants dolls, Trolls, cute clothes, and lots more!

After presents, delicious lunch (thank you, Sha Sha!) then we all sat down to watch Christmas Vacation.

Not all of us made it through the movie... someone had to do a show of gymnastics tricks for their Mommy!

The Hfield fam!!!

After slight panic because I couldn't find my keys, but eventually did in the bottom of my bag, we headed back to our house. We picked up Nanny and drove around to look at Christmas lights. We had extra Minion ornaments that we'd made for her class. Our neighborhood had a few Minion inflatables so we stopped at three houses to give them a Minion ornament. The first house wasn't home so we left it on their doorknob. The second house the guy thought we were crazy. The third house was grandparents and invited us in to see their snow village. They let AR turn on every Hallmark holiday toy that plays music and sent us on our way with a bag of Hershey kisses. It was a pretty magical, neighborly moment!

When we got back home, she set out cookies and milk herself.

All ready for Santa, now get to bed, kiddo!

Here was the spread from Santa... an Elsa castle, a Trolls seek and find book, a My Little Pony easy reader, and a Blues dress.

Opening her stocking and wondering why the heck she got an orange! I had to explain it was for good health.

She had lots of other presents to open from me, Nanny, her babysitter, and some other people that love her that sent some over or dropped them off. She is a very blessed little girl to have such wonderful people in her life.

After the gift opening, we had breakfast of special drinks and an egg casserole that was incredibly easy and delicious.

Then we had a little bit of time to open a few gifts. Her big gift from me was a Descendants karaoke machine and it was a hit!

I'm sure we'll be hearing a LOT of this during her Christmas break this next week.



Santa also brought both AR and me this necklace. It has our birthstones on it. It says "I love you behind my back and around" because that's what AR always says then it says A Team because that's what we call ourselves.

Then it was time to head over to Daddy's!

Matt invited me in to see the tree that Santa had brought to her room and he let me stick around to watch her open her gifts from him and Santa. 

Santa brought her this super awesome tea set which she had asked for! WTG Santa!!!

AR and Daddy got me a gift and it was the greatest ever because my girl thought of it all on her own! I won a bike back in November so AR told Matt that I needed a blue helmet so we could ride it through the neighborhood together. How awesome of a thought process is that? I hadn't said anything, she thought about it all by herself!

My sweet, thoughtful girl! I can't wait until spring so we can ride together again!

When Matt dropped her off Christmas night, they brought in all the gifts she got at grandma's so I could see. One of her favorites was this pink camouflage BB gun.

Overall, I think this little girl had a pretty awesome Christmas! Now, I get to spend the next three days with her while I'm off work. Today we hit up Six Flags again with a soccer teammate, tomorrow we're going to Sing in Suite Seats, and then who knows what Wednesday will hold for us! Hopefully, your holiday was as blessed as ours. Merry Christmas!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

It's that time of year again! I've never been a fan of decorating... period. It's evident in my home to anyone that's ever visited. However, having a little one in the house means it's a must to decorate for the holidays. In the bottom right corner, you can see our blow up tree and laser lights on the house. For two plugs and about ten minutes of set-up, I'm pretty pleased with how this turned out!

This is the first year we haven't had a live tree. Last year, after Christmas, I bought two pre-lit trees on sale. They were super easy to put together. The tree in AR's room came in two pieces and the tree in our living room came in three. The downside is that NONE of the lights in each section connected!!! I found an extension cord that worked on AR's tree and I ended up draping my own Christmas lights over the one in the living room so it's currently not even using the ones that came with it. Live and learn... story of my life currently!

AR was pretty pumped about her tree if you can't tell! She's being weird though and doesn't want the lights on so I don't know what's up with that but either way, she's a big fan of the Christmas tree in her room. 

I let her pick out the ornaments she wanted to put in her room. I also let her put them on the tree if you can't tell, that's why there's four of them almost touching! She really didn't want any with her name or picture on her room although I convinced her to take a few, she really only wanted Frozen ones in there. 

Our living room tree, nothing fancy, but it works for us. We've never had a topper for the tree so I told AR we could go get one and I'd let her pick it out.

AR's had a blast trying to see if her hand/feet fit old hand/footprints we've made. For the first year of doing all this by myself, I have to admit that I think we did a great job!!! I should also mention that if you come to our house during this time, be prepared to take a seat so she can take every ornament off the tree and show it to you.

The G-Fam Now

First off, thanks, everyone, for the warm welcome back! This is why I love you all so much. I know I kind of dropped a bomb on you with the whole divorce thing and you probably have like a million questions you want to know if you're anything like me aka nosey and want to know all the details. Let me start off by saying I won't be bashing or saying anything bad about any party involved so don't think I'm trying to act like we're perfect, I'm just trying to be respectful. Everything started in August 2015 and I have a couple blog posts that I started to write but they ended up being more of an emotional outlet for me instead. They were really raw and more about my feelings than the facts which is what I'm going to try to keep this to so here goes.

August 2015, Matt and I decided to get divorced. No big drama or event of what got us to this point, we'd both been feeling it for awhile so when he brought it up, I agreed. Matt stayed in the house with us until May 2016 when the divorce was finalized. AR and I stayed in our house and Matt moved about fifteen minutes away so it's nice that we're still pretty close location wise. My mom stayed with AR and I mid-May-mid-August which was a good transition for me and for AR.

As far as parenting plan goes, we trade every other weekend and Thursday nights plus she stays with her dad every Wednesday as well. I won't lie, it's been tough not being with my girl every night but I try to stay busy when she's not home. I've had an awesome support system of people who invite me on walks, let me come over and hang out, or go out dancing with. I definitely can't complain about that although I still have times that I sit at home and have a pity party every now and then but the good definitely outweigh the bad.

She played soccer this fall, Go Grapes! I went to all her practices even though they were on Wednesday nights. My philosophy is that I still attend practices/activities like I would have if we were still married. She did awesome and we made some really amazing friends! One of her teammates is having a Gingerbread House party in a couple weeks so AR is really excited to see everyone again.

Matt and I still struggle at times like we did when we were married. For both of us, we always try to put AR first and what's best for her. Matt and I may not be husband and wife anymore but we will always be her Mommy and Daddy so when she asked if Daddy could go trick or treating with us, the answer was of course yes.

It's been a long road to get to the point where we are now and it's going to continue to be until we get the hang of it. Even then, the only guarantee in life is that it's always going to change so we'll regroup and figure things out at that point again. And while we've had lots of changes in our world, AR seems to be handling it pretty well. I mean occasionally, she'll say something that breaks my heart and I think geez, she's really going to need therapy one day but take a look at that smile of hers? She's a pretty happy and blessed little girl. She's got a Mommy and Daddy that love her, some amazingly awesome friends, and a family that adores her. Our girl is strong willed and sassy and she doesn't hesitate to call us out when she needs to. Overall, we're still a family that's a work in progress.

Cardinals' Spring Training 2016

Back in March, AR, my sister, and my niece all headed to the airport bright and early before the sun was out. We were catching a plane to sunny Florida for spring break to catch our STL Cardinals at spring training. It was a great trip, hot and exhausting, but lots of baseball and fun times! We caught four Cardinals' games and hit up three different stadiums. Our first stop was Space Coast Stadium, home of the Nationals... and Bryce Harper. Here's AR yelling, "Come on, guys! You can do it, I know you can!" Poor girl was so excited for the game but exhausted for the early wake-up call and passed out for the entire game.

Here's the Cardinals' "bullpen"

Bullpen catcher, Teran, that Haley and I were buddies with

This was the inning after Gyorko passed Matt Adams running the bases. I can only imagine what they're saying here.

Oh, swoon-YADI!

A rare moment of AR loving on her Sha Sha

 

 Now, here's the most awesome story of the trip! Last season, AR got to meet Matt Adams before a Cardinals game at Busch Stadium. My friend Laura got this great picture of them talking and Matt has a huge smile on his face. Seriously, the guy is amazing with kids. I had the picture printed in an 8x10 in hopes that we'd get him to sign it for her... and he did! This is him walking straight to her.

 

He took the picture and looked at it. AR informed him that it was a picture of her and him. He laughed and started to sign it but AR stopped it and asked what he was doing. Matt said, "Well, I'm going to sign it, put my name here. Is that okay?" AR thought about it then nodded and proceeded to tell him her full name... in case he wanted her to sign anything!

There she is in the pink hat watching him sign her pic.

 

 Ta-da! When we got back home, I bought a frame and put it in her room. The night I did it, AR came up to me with a Batman sticker and said, "Mommy, thanks for putting the Matt Adams picture in my room. You can have this sticker." She's such a sweetheart!
 

Haley and I went on the field one day for batting practice. That was cool to see all the players so close and the kids got a few autographs. 

AR got Jacob Wilson's autograph, who Haley is in love with!

Roger Dean Stadium, home of the Cardinals and the Marlins

This was at Tradition Field, home of the Mets

This was by far the hottest day if you can't tell by this picture.

We enjoyed dinner out a couple nights and ordered in a few. AR insisted on trying a lemon... bad idea, chica!

OH! Bryce Harper!

The girls got Tanner Roark's autograph from the Nationals

 

Although AR was much more interested in eating Pringles

All ready to get some autographs!

Another hot game day... at least I got a good tan to start the summer with!

Thank you to the Yankee fans that sat beside us and gave AR their Cardinals' popcorn helmet!

 

We got to meet Curtis Granderson of the Mets up close and personal thanks to his cousin, Tameka. This guy is so genuine, waves to every fan, signs at many autographs as he can, and ALWAYS has a smile on his face... with a smile that good, why wouldn't you?

My friend Laura was down there with her family. AR and TJ hit it off and were quickly best friends.

AR was in charge of the spray bottle and ice, a great job for a toddler!

Sunday was Easter and the Bunny stopped by our hotel. He did forget a basket so luckily we had that popcorn helmet to use. AR got a necklace with her name on it and that girl hasn't taken it off except for gymnastics class!

Then it was back to reality on Monday morning and a flight back to MO!